Weixin Pay, the digital payment service associated with the Chinese version of Tencent’s WeChat superapp, signed a strategic agreement with the Singapore Tourism Board in Shanghai today in a move aimed at making payments more straightforward for Chinese tourists visiting the city state. As part of the three-year partnership, Chinese tourists will be able to use Weixin Pay when making purchases at dozens of key merchants in Singapore, which is among the top 10 popular destinations for Chinese travelers, according to online travel agency Ctrip. Expectations are high for Chinese tourists’ overseas spending now that pandemic-related control measures have been lifted. China recorded the highest outbound tourism expenditure in 2021, despite Chinese authorities maintaining strict restrictions on overseas travel, with spending topping nearly $106 billion, figures from research and analytics firm Statistics show. [TechNode reporting]